Work to start on five World Cup stadia this year

Work to start on five World Cup stadia this year

Construction work will start on five stadia for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar this year, according a senior official.

Yasser al-Mulla, project manager at Al-Rayyan Precinct for the country’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, said that Qatar’s preparations for the World Cup 2022 were “on track”.

Addressing an international audience gathered at the MEED Qatar Projects Conference 2014, he said Qatar will issue 10 tenders this year for project managers and design consultants on the stadiums being built for the tournament.

“We are in the advanced stages of design work for six stadiums and this year we will see five stadiums begin the early works on foundations and construction,” he added.

Doha expects to spend an additional $4bn on building stadiums and related sporting infrastructure for the World Cup.

The largest new stadium planned is the Lusail Iconic stadium, which will have a capacity of more than 86,000 people and is to be used for the opening match and the finals.

As part of the massive infrastructure roll out, hotel rooms will be expanded to 95,000 by 2022 from the current 15,000 rooms available.

Qatar’s Public Works Authority (Ashgal) has also revealed plans to launch $27.5bn worth of expressway and interchange projects over the next five years to supplement the over $3bn worth of contracts that were awarded last year. The road projects are expected to be completed in 2020.

On Tuesday, it was reported that a decision on whether to switch the Qatar 2022 World Cup to the cooler winter months had been put off until early in 2015.

Global organising body FIFA had previously said that a resolution to move the tournament from summer, where temperatures in the Gulf state can reach up to 50 degrees Celsius, would be made by the end of this year.